Words: Otis Hayes | Photo: Ste Fletcher
Splint is the latest signing to Nice Swan Records, inking a deal as part of the label’s introducing series following tremors of the group’s intense live performances around Manchester – the result is their debut single, ‘Military Procedures’.
The guitar-heavy track arrives in an angular, choppy fashion with unorthodox rhythms – a bass groove chugs in the underbelly, as drums crash and tear their way through the mix. The vocals are delivered with an ease and confidence, weaving their way through the jagged guitar lines with an innate urgency. On the surface things feel purposefully chaotic, ‘Military Procedures’ is made up of complex layers of sound, jarring breakdowns meet vocal barks as the unyielding momentum finds a krautrock strut.
Accompanied by a video directed by Mackenzie Thompson, vocalist/guitarist Jake Bogacki notes, “Military Procedures is in essence a song about the confusion of adolescence and the acceptance of your own failings, each of which lead you to the circumstances you find yourself in. Five years was always the given quota by education establishments to judge where and what you will be after you’d finished, to create a sense of urgency to be something. What’s the end goal of all that?”
Splint play a run of UK shows in 2022.
Sat 27 Aug – Hebden Bridge, The Trades Club
Sat 3 Sep – Manchester, Psych Fest
Fri 9 Sep – Manchester, The Castle
Sat 10 Sep – Manchester, Repeater Festival
Fri 16 Sep – London, Jaguar Shoes
Sat 15 Oct – Leeds, Live At Leeds
Sat 29 Oct – Manchester, YES (Mood Swings)
hardofhearingmagazine.com 